A French-Swiss consortium is conducting exploratory research to develop a “smart bra” for detecting breast cancer. It wants to leverage technological progress to offer a more accessible diagnostic method than mammography. This initiative – that involves five partners – is supported in France by the FEDER (European fund for regional development) and in Switzerland by the Confederation and the canton of Neuchâtel within the framework of the European programme for regional cooperation Interreg France-Switzerland.
Imec (Leuven, Belgium), a leading research and innovaton hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, and its spin-off Bloomlife have unveiled a prototype of the world’s first wearable 5-channel electrocardiogram (ECG) chip to continuously and accurately monitor fetal heart rate and mobility, two important indicators of a baby’s wellbeing. With the development of this chip, a major hurdle has been taken in the creation of a wearable ECG system that can accurately measure the fetal ECG as early as week 20 in a woman’s pregnancy.
Schreiner MediPharm (Oberschleißheim, Germany) in cooperation with Swiss-based Ypsomed developed an NFC-Label that is applied to the YpsoMate autoinjector and transmits stored information about the medication to its electronic add-on – the novel SmartPilot. Thus, the data recorded about the use of the autoinjector logged by the SmartPilot are ideally complemented. The resulting connected device enhances the safety of patients and assists them in the self-administration of medicines in order to better comply with prescribed therapies.